The development of printed health education messages

Print materials such as pamphlets are widely used in the field of health education. An extensive variety and volume of materials is continually produced and distributed to the public. Print material is frequently used by health professionals for both patient and public education. Considerable resources are continually being expended in the development, production and distribution of pamphlets for health education and promotion. Despite the widespread use of pamphlets, there remain some unanswered questions about the potential effectiveness of pamphlets and the cost-effectiveness of various approaches to pamphlet development. The objective of the thesis is to determine the effectiveness of pamphlets in changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviour and to identify cost-effective strategies for the development of pamphlets. It was anticipated that this would lead to the development of guidelines for practitioners, which would outline cost-effective strategies for use in developing pamphlets. The thesis consists of a series of integrated studies and reviews designed to identify cost-effective strategies for developing pamphlets within a 'real world' context. The theoretical framework used in the thesis for assessing the effectiveness of pamphlets is McGuire's Communication Persuasion Model. The model outlines the process from issuing an educational message to achieving behaviour change. The process is a series of steps: exposure to the message, attention to the message, interest in the message, comprehension of the message, skill acquisition, yielding to the message, retention and retrieval of the message, and finally behaviour change.